Christmas Eve 2011: The Best Yet!

Spending Christmas Eve with the family through the years have been the best moments I look forward to every year. But Christmas Eve 2011 has been the best yet.

I arrived home from some last minute shopping (walked around the department stores in Colon Street because it was impossible to find an empty cab to go to the malls) just in time for dinner.

No, there was no lechon and other fancy recipes we had before. We had to save to have something worthwhile to give Sendong victims in northern Mindanao.

However, Doris made sure everybody would be seated at the veranda beside her Christmas lanterns. The dinner was simple yet the food was plenty enough to last until after the stroke of 12 midnight. Loud though out-of-tune singing of Christmas songs by neighbors provided us with comic entertainment.

Brother-in-law Archie Isubal (who came with wife Cecille, Nicole, Randolph, and Nanay) took care of the fireworks; the TV showed a Christmas concert; and children (and some not so young) singing carols at the gate.

My eldest Karlo was around fussing with Alya and Bordi. He arrived earlier last week with girlfriend Sheila. Ha! The ever observant Nanay describes her as ‘buotan.’

Earlier yesterday, Alya accompanied me to visit (and give gifts) to two political prisoners — Ramon Patriarca and Bert Acerdin — at the Danao City Jail. I was with Sun.Star Cebu‘s Ely Baquero and Gene Valenzuela of dyRC. A longer post on this later.

And Kikay, well, she had been waiting for weeks now for that moment to open her Christmas gifts.

The moments of family bonding made the hours pass so quickly. Before we knew it, the deafening booms and flashes of fireworks that lighted up the night made us realize it was already Christmas.